Thursday, February 20, 2014

Thursday Recipe - Plate Tectonics Cookies

Some people call these Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. I prefer calling them plate tectonics examples. I occasionally teach geology and earth science and I've found cookies make great analogies. Plus, they're tasty.

So, quick lesson on plate tectonics. When you have a liquid mantle with convection currents in the interior of a planet, the crust (the part that cooled and solidified) is broken into chunks that float on the surface of the mantle. As the currents move, they shift the plates around. Sometimes they slam into each other. Sometimes they grind past each other. And sometimes, they pull apart along spreading zones where hot fresh lava oozes out onto the surface and creates new crust.

These cookies show some fun "plates" in the powdered sugar coating. They're more spreading zone artifacts than true tectonic plates, but you get the idea.

Book Breeze

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My kids think I'm insane, but in a good way. I write science fiction adventure and silly horror and dabble in other genres. I love watching bad monster movies and 80s classic SF. My music collection is very eclectic. Disco Accordion Polka Folk Music anyone?